ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the constitutional level of reconciliation as part of the multi-level framework of conflict transformation. It struggles that a central task of reconciliation is the constitution of deeply divided societies through the creation and expansion of political spaces in which the full range of views and perspectives can be heard. Political reconciliation has a central concern with the ways in which alienated and opposing groups in deeply divided societies learn to live together as victims and perpetrators of past violence. Reconciliation in South Africa also required a radical reconceptualization of citizenship. Around the world, indigenous peoples maintain a unique relationship with the ideas and institutions of citizenship and reconciliation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia are consistently ambivalent, if not hostile, to nation-building forms of reconciliation that focus on inclusion in the settler state. Women also tend to promote reconciliation and conflict transformation efforts that are specifically attentive to gender-based violence.
